Spencer Badu
A Canadian-Ghanian designer
FASHION PROFILE
(HULLMARK/Spencer Badu)
Canadian Designer's Global Genderless Fashion Revolution
BY KAYLEE MAO
New York, New York, 2022
Determined to drive a post-gender revolution, Toronto-based Spencer Badu founded his eponymous brand in 2015 during his freshman year of college. To experiment with clothing design, Badu taught himself the art of pattern making and needlework before entering design school, a move that would inspire the formation of his unisex ready-to-wear brand. An uninhibited individual by nature, Badu's creative force is driven by the need to make his point by tailoring the genderless world he wants to inhabit.
Until now though, what people are talking about is the success of the Badu brand, but some of his own voice is missing. In this interview via zoom, he talks about his insights on the pressure to always be ready with new ideas as a designer in a candid and detailed manner.
He also opens up about how being a designer has been a dream of his since childhood and how to deal with negative voices, and mentions how being global is one of the things he is proud of about his brand, somehow becoming an international brand and being recognized by consumers from all over the world. They have stores located in the States, London, Canada, Korea, and Japan.
As Badu said, “for everything I design, I think about what it would look like on everyone, regardless of gender.”
The longevity and globalization of the brand is the goal that Badu has always followed and achieved.
Let’s start from the origin of your choice of the fashion industry, what made you begin to choose to be a designer? Was it a dream from childhood or did you grow up to work in the fashion industry?
I think fashion for me has been an extension of just my creativity. Ever since I could remember I’ve always been creative and I’ve always had an artistic ability. As a kid, I used to draw a lot and sketch a lot, and I always used to do images and reimage things.
I can say at an early age, I had a very clear obsession with style and fashion, and I think the inspiration was through hip hop music or videos, more like a hip hop culture.
So I think or realize that there must be a point in my life that is more or less relevant to the fashion industry that is coming.
What do you think is the trend of the fashion industry, especially designers need to think in the 21st century?
When I think about trends, I don’t think we necessarily follow this trend either. We’re definitely aware of trends that are less popular at the time we’re operating, but I think the brand operates in more or less a trend in this space.
We just do what we want, if it's in trend it is, if it's not, it's not. However, I do think that as an emerging brand, as we can see these days a lot of smaller brands are creating trends.
So it could be anything from the cut of a certain type of dress or the size of a jacket to the size of a pair of pants.
I believe many of these ideas are now coming from young designers and then it's being embraced by this year's fashion crowd, setting trends, taking creative liberties and people are following it.
When you run out of inspiration, what do you usually do to get new ideas?
It’s really interesting, but I haven’t really gotten to a point where I feel I’m out of ideas. It might sound corny that life is my biggest inspiration, like my culture, my peers, and friends. The way my friends dress and the lifestyle they live also inspires me to make clothes for them.
I love fashion in general as much as I love seeing what's happening in the industry. I also love music and I'm a big fan of contemporary art and architecture. Sometimes your other sense may also come from watching a piece of art or a movie, in which I see the world from a different perspective.
I know Being a designer can be stressful at times, you always need to have some ideas for new collections for the coming season, can you talk about the influence on your life?
I personally don’t put pressure on myself. I don’t think it’s always my job to come up with something new, there’s something to be said about potential like moving slower.
Let’s say we make something this season very popular and continue to explore that idea until we feel like we’ve explored it to the point. For me, I think as a designer, and at least for myself, it’s about creating things that are more or less like Samples, like brand samples, which you cannot continue to build off of. Like most of the major brands, you can always see products that were once collections launched and basically never sold out. I guess I need to manage them similar to these brands every season and make them a permanent collection.
How do you react when negative comments appear under your designers? Especially if it's something you've put a lot of effort into.
Back to negative comments, I think you have to understand as a designer that everyone’s not going to like your stuff. My clothes are not suitable for everyone, but the money spent on my designs will definitely make it worth your while.
That being said, I do understand that I put a lot of effort into my designs, but I definitely don’t let the negative comments get to me. I look at it as just a part of the world we live in, and I don’t think someone is telling me that I’m the best designer in the world. Or someone told me that my staff is the worst designer in the world. Both of them mean nothing.
More or less, confidence comes from making ideas come to life. For me, that’s the confirmation of my work, not a famous person or celebrity giving me a compliment.